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This is an archive article published on November 6, 2013
Post Sachin game,Lahli gets an image change
All through the game,never ever did the pacers curse the 22-yards that consistently provided carry and bounce.
Written by Express News Service
New Delhi | November 6, 2013 05:27 AM IST
4 min read
4 min read
Lahli,for long,has been domestic cricket’s modest outpost that most visiting teams bad-mouthed. Invariably,early finishes to games would see batsmen complaining about the wicked wicket. With no telecast of Haryana’s home games,the brief scores at the end of abridged match reports in newspapers wouldn’t be sufficient to prove the allegations made by the failing willowmen.
Lahli’s time under the Sachin Tendulkar spotlight last week saw the Chaudhary Bansi Lal Stadium get an image makeover. Along with the fans who travelled miles to watch Tendulkar’s last Ranji outing,the Mumbai vs Haryana game,came the television cameras. With the game going live,the judgement on Lahli was no longer based on hearsay. By the end of Day 4,the venue had gained a reputation. A positive reputation.
All through the game,never ever did the pacers curse the 22-yards that consistently provided carry and bounce. On a circuit where every other venue was either a featherbed or a belter,Lahli was an exception. Haryana was to lose the close contest but it wasn’t the kind of game that would make a captain,like MS Dhoni after the run-marathon ODI against Australia at Nagpur,float the idea of replacing bowlers with bowling machines.
Reward for bowlers<\b>
Bowlers got their rewards if they bowled in the right areas and bent their back. Batsmen,meanwhile,scored runs if they were well-versed in the art of leaving the ball and had the temperament to play the longer version of the game. Haryana Cricket Association secretary Anirudh Chaudhary wasn’t just pleased with the way his young team,under skipper Ajay Jadeja,fought against defending champions Mumbai but also that the general perception of Lahli was changing.
Earlier,it was always the case of Lahli having a bad wicket. Constantly,I would get to hear these kind of things. Now it has all changed. ‘It is a lovely wicket’,they tell me now. The wicket remains the same but the mindset has changed, he says.
Not just that,these days Chaudhary even gets to hear suggestions about inviting the Indian team to train on the pace-friendly Lahli pitch before traveling abroad. They tell me that the national team should spend some time here before leaving for New Zealand or England, he says.
New chapter<\b>
The season’s first game has opened a new chapter for Lahli in more ways than one. It’s isn’t just the pitch that received appreciation from the experts and the fans who had trooped in every day. The venue,located on the outskirsts of Rohtak,in the middle of fields where tractors till agricultural land just beyond the stadium’s perimeter,too passed an important test. It showed that it can can host of high-profile players and games with over-crowded stands.
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My biggest fear was crowd control. People here are not used game that have restrictions over the crowd. Touch wood nothing happened, he said.
Haryana Cricket Association walked the extra mile to make Tendulkar’s stay comfortable but,in turn,they would also enjoy a few perks for hosting the most celebrated batsman’s last game. Everyone we approached wanted to be part of this game. We have been having conectivity problem with internet. The earlier service provider shut shop. The moment it was decided that Sachin will play the game,BSNL were more than willing to provide their services. They laid the optical fiber. We got a good deal and we allowed them to do their branding, says Chaudhary.
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